In Our Own Words (Excerpted)

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 is a 𝟭𝟮-𝗺𝗶𝗻𝘂𝘁𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗿𝗽𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 video, 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 “𝗜𝗻 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗢𝘄𝗻 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀”, 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝟭, 𝟮, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝟰.

This is an Oral History/Community Health/Digital Storytelling Project, concerning a highly controversial ‘Cap and Stitch’ Transportation Project being proposed, in Buffalo (NY). The NY Route 33 Kensington Expressway Project, is a $Billion+ Highway Preservation megaproject, proposed by New York State’s Department of Transportation [NYSDOT]. However, it is opposed by a significant percentage of the (predominantly) Black and African American East Side Buffalo Community Residents whom have been (most) directly impacted, by its existence, thus far. The massive government reinvestment in the Kensington Expressway will extend its (wrongful) domination of the Humboldt Parkway Neighborhood’s, and East Side Buffalo Community’s, landscape. The highway should not be reinvested in, it should be REMOVED. It deserves to be REMEDIATED. The “best interest” of the Impacted Historically Economically Disadvantaged Minority Community Residents whom it has been tolerated to compromise, these past 70 years, can be best served. in this generation, by an equitable Project. That would include a comprehensive assessment of the expressway’s historic Adverse Impacts- especially, as concerning:

Health
Water Quality
Property Values
Property Damage
Adverse Health Impacts
Legacy Resident Opinions
Air Quality (Outdoor and Indoor)
Regional Tourism Ecosystem Impact
Generational Wealth (i.e. Home Equity)
Small Business Commercial Corridor Development
Natural ‘Great’ Outdoors Cultural Asset Reclamation
Pollution Levels [i.e. Greenhouse Gas Emission Exposure]
Neighborhood and Community Youth Workforce Development.

It is undeniable that Humboldt Parkway Neighborhood’s, and East Side Buffalo Community’s, residents would be better served by Removal and Remediation of NY Route 33 Kensington Expressway, and which would positively facilitate “reconnection” of the Humboldt Parkway Neighborhoods severed, and damaged, by the expressway’s construction, and due to its nearly 100 year-old existence. NYSDOT’s Project is compromising residents’ “best interest”, by confronting us with a pre-determined slate of Project Goals, and by ‘serving’ to silence residents’ outcry, at the risk of terminating our complaints. This, as opposed to partnering with we residents, and cultivating the amplification of our voices. NYSDOT is failing to give due consideration to our (preferred) Highway Removal Project hope. NYSDOT must fully explore Alternate Option Ten: Removal. Today’s Kensington Project is as unfair, and undemocratic, as its 1950s era predecessor. More than 30 USA Cities have already or are removing, their 1950s era highways.

Why not here, in Buffalo?

What we stand to gain, is restoring a (formerly) majestic tree-lined Humboldt Parkway Neighborhood, to its (predominantly) Black and African American, East Side Buffalo Community. Reconnect separated Humboldt Parkway Neighborhoods, and return these to their (former) connectivity. All the way from Delaware Park, to Humboldt/MLK Park, to downtown Buffalo. Like many other urban inner-city freeways, the Kensington Expressway helped kill our city’s downtown. More than 100 small businesses were shuttered, to make way for its installation. Hundreds of 60-foot trees. Hundreds of East Side Commercial Corridor small businesses. All sacrificed, for a highway landed in the middle of a (densely) populated, (increasingly) Black and African American Community. Please recognize the Racial Injustice, permeating this Problem. Numerous Humboldt Parkway Neighborhood Residents, and East Side Buffalo Community Residents, have agreed to be interviewed to support this first-of-its-kind, Buffalo Neighborhood and Community Empowerment Video Initiative. May their well-intentioned contributions, be honored.

To add your Support Factor, please sign the (corresponding) Change.Org Petition relating to this Effort, at: http://tinyurl.com/k5m7scx4. For timely Updates of this crucially important Community Economic Development Opportunity, this Equity In Transit and Transportation Projects Matter, please visit:

CovingtonAssociatesConsulting.Com
Facebook.Com/WeAreWomenWarriors
Facebook.Com/CovingtonAssociatesConsulting
https://www.facebook.com/sherrysherrill/videos/1422153511742936

…..and this YouTube.Com Channel.

Thank You, to:
The East Side Collaborative Partnership.

Thank You, as well, to:
We Are Women Warriors
East Side Parkways Coalition
Stop The Violence Coalition
Covington Associates Consulting CAC

| THANK YOU, TOO, FOR YOUR SUPPORT. YOU ARE APPRECIATED! |

Respectfully,
Ms. Sherry Sherrill, President and CEO,
Covington Associates Consulting | CAC
Buffalo, NY, USA

Contact:
CAC
CovingtonAssociatesConsulting.Com
CovingtonAssocConsulting@Gmail.Com
+1(716) 800-1394 | 24-Hr. Main Telephone Line (Business: Call or Text)

CAC

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